1. The Grey- $20M
Liam Neeson continues to be one of the more consistent box office stars out there, and he's now had three straight #1 hits, alongside Taken and Unknown. It seems he's found his spot opening genre flicks in the early months, and people seem content to watch the old man battle insurmountable forces. In this case, they showed up watch him square off with Mother Nature and a deranged wolfpack, although the ads may have emphasized that part of the film too much. The CinemaScore of B- seems to indicate that audiences were happy, but maybe a little underwhelmed by some of the larger themes. They wanted Taken 2: Dances with Wolves, and instead got Into the Tree of Wildlife.
2. Underworld: Awakening- $12.5M/$45.1M
Despite a 51% dip from last week, the fourth Underworld film continues to power on, with the strongest tally of the any of them after a 10 day period. In 2013 you might as well go ahead and pencil in Underworld 5.
3. One for the Money- $11.8M
The power of Groupon continues. After helping last year's The Lincoln Lawyer to a better than expected opening and overall run, the discount sales service has done the same for Katherine Heigl's terrible looking rom-com. Considering the film is based on a popular series of novels by Janet Evanovich, the low analyst projects was a slight curveball, but the final tally easily exceeded them. It's still a pretty small debut for Heigl, ranking below her most recent starring films, but there's still the possibility that the primarily female audience will keep it afloat for a few weeks.
4. Red Tails- $10.4M/33.8M
See, George Lucas? You can't even convince black folks to turn out for a black action movie when the fate of black cinema is at stake! Actually, there's always the possibility that the rest of my kind is running on C.P. Time and we'll see it in another couple of weeks when the ticket prices are reduced. For real, though, the Tuskegee Airmen flick slipped about 45%, which actually isn't all that bad. However it's going to be tough for it to make up the $60M-$70M budget. Lucas could always pump out a bunch of limited edition Red Tails Star Wars action figures and make up the difference.
5. Man On A Ledge- $8.25M
Incoherent marketing had Man On A Ledge on the precipice of disaster long before now, but I think the real reason why nobody gave a crap about this film is it's tepid star: Sam Worthington. It's a bad sign when the January genre film he's fronting does less business than an arthouse flick like The Debt, which never had a release wider than 1800 theaters. Perhaps a wiser strategy would have been to focus on the talented ensemble, rather than putting so much of the burden on Worthington.
6. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close- $7.14M/$21.1M
Earning a Best Picture nomination tends to be a big boost, and in the case of this 9/11 weeper that was probably the case. Losing only 28% from last week, the film will probably have longer legs now than it originally would have, which means I get to keep typing out that long ass title.
7. The Descendants- $6.55M/$58.8M
Hey, lookit that! The best movie of last year also had the best national rollout. Nearly three months into it's release, The Descendants is only just now surpassing 2000 theaters, and saw it's box office jump an incredible 176%. At nearly $60M already, it'll receive a steady bump from it's recent Best Picture nomination, and may hang around to reach the $100M mark. I hope so.
8. Contraband- $6.53M/$56.4M
9. Beauty and the Beast- $5.34M/$41.1M
10. Haywire- $4M/$15.3M
Really, America? Between this and Drive, we can make a pretty awesome "Underappreciated Smart Action Flicks" double feature.
